Akiyoshi Cave

A spelunking adventure of the Japanese kind

Tristan Scholze Mar 20, 2013 - 1 min read

This adventure begins with a walk through the forest along a bubbling stream

Butterflies enchant the mossy stones along the stream, entreating your imagination

Damselflies and ferns are also denizens of this causeway

The magnificent waterfall portal with magical covered bridge

The grand entranceway greets your long-expected arrival

Then the stream flattens out in a spacious hall with floating mist

The One Hundred Saucers are an offer to you

There are abundant bridges, stairways, and waterfalls all along the twisty trail

Closeup of a very fine sand-like rock formation, or Crepe Rock if you can stretch your creative invention

This rock is for your imagination to name

Green and white stalactites have inched downward for three hundred thousand years

The King of the Cave may speak to you--if you listen carefully

In the western tip of Honshu, Japan’s largest island, under a hilly karst plateau, their lies a hole in the ground. Not an ordinary, dirty, smelly hole. Rather, a large, well-lit, somewhat misty, surprisingly-noisy-at-times hole. Inside are hidden extraordinary things: secret passages with dragons, jellyfish climbing a waterfall, a hundred saucers, a thousand rice fields, a king, the goddess of mercy, and a gold pillar. Some of these can be seen within the images ahead, and many more will wait for you to behold in person. Although eventually the hole comes to an end, it flows out into the forests, mountains, and rocky steppe with creatures great and small beyond its gate. During this brief otherworld encounter, time, space, and thoughts of all these things merge into one. And a river runs through it.

Name in Japanese
秋芳洞—Akiyoshidō—Akiyoshi Cave

Akiyoshidai is in the city of Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Best visited by car, but accessible by bus. The pedestrian thoroughfare that connects the entrance of Akiyoshi Cave to restaurants, shopping, parking and the bus center is a 40-minute bus ride (1,170 yen, 1 per hour) from the Shin-Yamaguchi Shinkansen station or a 60-minute bus ride (1,210 yen, 1 per 2 hours) from Yamaguchi Station, both in Yamaguchi City. From Mine Station, it’s a 25-minute bus ride (200 yen, 1 every 90 minutes). There's also a reasonably-priced "Karst Taxi" service for transport in and around the park.

More info

Find out more about Akiyoshido Cave.

Tristan Scholze @tristan.scholze

I'm also known as Faer Out. I love learning about people and nature. I've traveled around the world and throughout Japan, and I hope to continue seeing and experiencing the wonder of this planet as long as I live.Based in Japan for nearly two decades, I'm a Japan Travel expert for Fukuoka and Sag...